tar: Unrecognized archive format on FreeBSD < 8.3

# cd /usr/ports/archivers/libarchive
# make install clean

Then edit /etc/make.conf and add the following line:
TAR=/usr/local/bin/bsdtar

Resolving error "tar: Unrecognized archive format on FreeBSD < 8.3" (Page 1) — Ports & Packages — The FreeBSD Community